Voice of the people (letter).

Tollway Objection

November 24, 1998|By John P. Walliser, President, South Corridor Against the Tollway.

LOCKPORT — In response to his letter (Voice, Nov. 14), Richard Dystrup has chosen to disagree with the observations of Jon Hilkevitch in his Oct. 19 "Getting Around" column. Mr. Dystrup has also chosen to disagree with the majority of informed citizens here in Will County.

It is true that the explosive growth in Will County has increased the congestion on our local roads. But the traffic in Will County is much better than the traffic in DuPage, Cook and Lake Counties. The construction of a new tollway in Will County in order to encourage economic development is not the answer to relieving congestion, it is the cause of congestion.

Mr. Dystrup refuses to admit that his friends, our state road-builders, failed to provide proper studies in order to protect our communities. The recent federal court ruling that stopped Interstate Highway 355 stated that our road-builders failed to provide a study of how our local roads would be affected by the increased traffic from a new tollway.

Mr. Dystrup, in his previous position as mayor of Lockport, encouraged developers to build in his community because Interstate Highway 355 was going to be built. Mr. Dystrup has promoted the explosive growth in Will County based upon promises that he could not keep. Mr. Dystrup also promised pay raises to municipal employees in anticipation of the larger tax base that economic development would generate. Mr. Dystrup has spent years promoting the economic benefit of Interstate Highway 355.

Unfortunately Interstate Highway 355 was never intended to relieve congestion for the people of Will County--Interstate Highway 355 is intended to be a feeder to the Peotone Airport. That is what our road-builders stated to the Federal Highway Administration.

Mr. Dystrup is also wrong when he claims that environmentalists who live someplace else filed the lawsuit that stopped the tollway. I filed affidavits to the court along with many of my neighbors. We, the Will County members of the South Corridor Against the Tollway (SCAT), worked together with the Sierra Club, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and numerous other public-interest groups. We filed this lawsuit because our community was being irreparably harmed. The federal court agreed with us.